Free Republic

Objective articles appeared in two major newspapers this week on Homesh, the Jewish community in Samaria destroyed in 2005, and Joseph’s Tomb near Shechem. The rare coverage without the usual anti-Israeli bias is one among several signs that a four-decade long media attack in Israel is subsiding, albeit slowly.

The Virginia Frontier Culture Museum's 1740s log cabin is displayed as a work in progress. The cabin is a typical peeled-log, saddle-notched settler's cabin of the kind favored by Scotch-Irish moving into the wilds of the Backcountry. The construction was simple and required few tools. The museum's replica is built with one door and no windows -- a common practice which led to laws requiring homesteader's cabins have at least one window.

NERIA, West Bank — In this land of endless history and ethereal beauty, several thousand Jewish settlers gathered on a dozen West Bank hills with makeshift huts and Israeli flags over several days this week to mark an invented anniversary and defy the American president, conveying to his aides visiting Jerusalem what they thought of his demand for a settlement freeze. ... “We are rebuilding the land of Israel,” Rabbi Yigael Shandorfi, leader of a religious academy at the neighboring settlement outpost of Nahliel, said during the ceremony. “Our hope is that there will be roads, electricity and water.” The...

The mood in Jerusalem this week was one of shock. As if it weren't enough that the Obama administration is ignoring previous understandings between Israel and the Bush administration regarding natural growth in the settlements, now it seems there isn't agreement even on the outposts. The Rice-Weissglas compromise, which stipulated that Israel would evacuate 26 outposts established in the West Bank after the Sharon government came to power in March 2001 (in the meantime, that number has been reduced to 23), is no longer accepted by the Americans. The daily Maariv has reported that the United States is now demanding...

I am the problem. I am the one. The head of the free world referred to me, personally, my family, as the reason for the unrest in the world . With a broom in my hand, trying gamely to clean up the popcorn from my son's movie party, I am the reason that there is no world peace. Obama handed me the world's destiny. He told me - 'if you stop building, stop growing, all will be right in the Middle East. Don't even think of Iran or Darfur or the honor killing of the women in your region. Your...

Among the 200 activists that gathered at the Maoz Esther site was Hebron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, who explained why peace was impossible in the Middle East. "It's all illusions. With these savages, there was never peace, there is no peace and there will not be peace," he said. "It's not because we don't want it, but because they are enemies of peace. We just have to hope that our entire country is cleared of terrorists, their supporters, their backers and their camels. They should all be sent to Saudi Arabia."

A day after US President Barack Obama reiterated his call to stop settlement activity during a speech in Cairo, defiant settlers continued to erect illegal structures in the West Bank...the settlers built a wooden structure they mockingly called the "Obama Hut," saying it was a sign of appreciation for the US president for his actions that had led to a dramatic rise in the number of outposts.

They may falsely say your comrades gave confessions implicating you. They may bug your cell. They may deprive you of sleep, force you to sit in contorted postures for hours, even blindfold and beat you. Such warnings about Israeli interrogators from the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service are usually sounded among jailed Palestinians. But this time, they appear in a Hebrew-language pamphlet written for Jewish settlers and their sympathizers. With friction building in the occupied West Bank over the prospect -- albeit distant -- of a Palestinian state, the Shin Bet is quietly knuckling down on Jews who might turn...

Israel's hardest battle may still lie ahead, and it's not against an Arab foe. Warnings are growing louder that evicting tens of thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank's heartland — a requirement for peace with the Arabs — will be bloody, and perhaps fail. The defense minister says extremism is spreading among ultranationalists like "a cancerous growth," the intelligence chief warns of a growing readiness to take up arms to resist evacuation, and some settler rabbis are urging religious soldiers to refuse orders. It's a homegrown problem: For decades, Israel pampered settlers as brave pioneers, and the government...

Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan has instructed police to launch an investigation regarding a ceremony that was held to praise soldiers who refused an order to evict settlers from the Hebron market. During the ceremony these soldiers received payment as reward for their refusal. The order was given following a police investigation that raised suspicion that soldiers were incited to refuse commands, an act which under Israeli law is a crime in itself. Nitzan also ordered an investigation into an ad published on the Internet by a group called the Headquarters to Save the People and the Land of Israel,...

Israeli settlers will no longer be invited to events at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. Crispin Blunt, a member of the British Parliament who is closely involved with Arab lobby groups, had complained after finding out that three leaders of the settlers' movement were among the guests at a party to mark the 82nd birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. Blunt, a longtime supporter of the Arab and Palestinian causes, raised the issue in Parliament last month and in a letter to Dr. Kim Howell, the minister at the British Foreign Office. Blunt wrote that the invitation gives the impression...

In recent weeks the IDF has been collecting hundreds of military-issued weapons in the Binyamin region in the West Bank, including weapons that were in the possession of IDF officers. According to reports Tuesday, the only people who were given leave to keep their weapons were rapid response teams and those charged with maintaining security in the settlements. "This is a severe blow to the security of those driving on roads in the territories, especially following the removal of roadblocks and the delivery of weapons to the Palestinian Authority," a reserve officer who lives in the West Bank told Israel...

More than 60 years after the Raj ended, a fresh wave of bold British settlers are heading east to booming, thriving India to make their fortunes and forge new lives there. We report on the great rupee rush. For centuries, Britons have been knocking on India’s door. The would-be nabobs of the East India Company, the ambitious younger sons seeking to make their own way in the Indian Army, Latin tutors for Rajput princes, not to mention the unmarried girls of the “fishing fleet” setting sail in search of husbands... The colonial relationship ended with independence in 1947, but then...

Early settlers drained marshy US landscape 19:00 17 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic A milldam on Pickering Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The dam spans the entire valley, and is filled to the brim with sediment (Image: Robert Walter and Dorothy Merritts) Standard notions of the 'natural' eastern US landscape with its meandering ribbon-like streams may be misguided, suggests historical research. In the US, a multibillion-dollar landscape restoration industry is guided by the almost intuitive notion that natural, gravel-bedded streams wander in single channels across the land. This springs from the assumption that, when European settlers arrived in...

PA Arab Squatters Remain on Jerusalem Property 5 Kislev 5768, 15 November 07 05:49 by Ezra HaLevi(IsraelNN.com) Yitzchak Herskovitz, in his eighties, continues to battle Arab squatters in the courts as yet another eviction was postponed Sunday. Herskovitz has been in the courts for fifteen years against a clan of PA Arabs who are squatting on a property he owns just below the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat HaMatos, near Beit Tzefafa. Even after multiple rulings in his favor, the return of his property had been repeatedly delayed and called into question. “The government and courts are responsible for protecting...

Army warns Hebron settlers to evacuate market willingly Military Advocate General’s office says Jewish families residing in West Bank city’s market will be held financially responsible should IDF be instructed to forcefully evacuate them from the site Efrat Weiss Published: 07.30.07, 21:43 / Israel News The Military Advocate General’s office on Monday warned Jewish families residing in Hebron’s old market that should the IDF be instructed to forcefully evacuate them from the site, they would be held financially responsible. “The deadline for a voluntary evacuation (from the market) has passed, and the authorities in the area plan to work toward...

At 35, Yitschak Pindrus is the youngest mayor in Israel, but above the average age for a resident of his West Bank city of Betar Illit, whose population is increasing at four times the pace of the country. Betar Illit is one of the fastest-growing communities in Israel, ballooning 70 percent between 2000 and 2005. This kind of record would make any settler leader proud. But with his black hat, black shoes and haredi beliefs, Pindrus doesn't fit the stereotype of the rugged, sandal-clad settler with a rifle strapped across his back. "I don't own a pair of sandals," he...

Rumors of upcoming evacuation haven't deterred outposts in Binyamin region in West Bank from expanding. Ynet tour of area reveals new permanent structures being built, and introduction of new trailers as civil administration, meant to be upholding policy of Israeli government in West Bank, looks on in silence. Peace Now: Government continues to allow settlers to do whatever they wish Efrat Weiss Published: 11.16.06, 17:51 Settlers continue to expand outposts and to build permanent structures in blatant disregard for impending evacuation. This emerged from a Ynet tour of the Binyamin region of the West Bank. It turns out that a...

Every year an anonymous settler would damage olive trees in Kfar Salem grove. Since they did not know his name, village called him Gideon. But this year, IDF is keeping the settlers away and harvest is underway In recent years the main concern of the farmers from the village of Salem near Nablus was a settler they christened as Gideon. They didn't know who he was, but every year he would come to the olive groves, wreak havoc on them and assault Palestinian farmers. Most of the harvesting on Tuesday was done inside the village as access to the grounds...

Army must make law enforcement against settlers a policy backed by action Mooky Dagan Published: 09.21.06, 14:49 For years human rights organizations have pointed out the complicity between the Israel Defense Forces command headquarters in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israeli settlers, nurtured by policies intended to facilitate the Judaization of the West Bank. The army’s bond with the settlers leads to a policy of non-action as far as maintaining the law and the security of Palestinians, who are subject to constant violent harassment by their illegal neighbors. While the IDF and the Civil Administration (which deals with civilian conflicts...

(IsraelNN.com) The government is reviving plans to demolish several hilltop communities, often called outposts, according to Mideast Newsline. The demolitions were postponed because of the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist attacks on Israel. Kadima officials have said the party's election platform to destroy dozens of towns in Judea and Samaria is no longer a high priority item, but the hilltop communities still are on the chopping block. Sources quoted by Mideast Newsline said demolition orders could force the deployment of thousands of policemen and soldiers to encounter expected resistance. As during last summer's expulsion of thousands of Jewish residents of Gaza...

IDF to bus hitchhiking settlers Following kidnappings, IDF taking number of steps in order to protect hitchhiking settlers from terrorists Guy Mai-Tal Starting next week, the IDF will provide the settler’s with buses to pick up hitchhikers at various hitchhiking posts in Judea and Samaria. Unfortunately for Eliyahu Asheri, who earlier this week hitched a ride and then disappeared, it may be too late. Gaza kidnapping – special coverage Despite the tense security situation and alerts predicting continued kidnapping attempts, scores of young settlers continue to hitchhike in Judea and Samaria. Due to the low number of buses passing through...

Excerpt - According to a Palestinian Resistance Committees statement Wednesday morning, the group claimed it was holding, "Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri," the 18-year-old Itamar resident who went missing on Sunday. A spokesman for the group, known only as Abu Abir, told Al-Jazeera satellite TV early Wednesday that Asheri would be "butchered in front of TV cameras" if the IDF operation in Gaza did not stop. "Our patience is running out," said Abu Abir. ~ snip ~

PA minister: Settlers not welcome in Palestine Palestinian minister Sheikh Nayef Rajoub says Olmert’s statement that West Bank settlers could live in Palestinian state is clearly unrealistic. ‘We don't want them, and I'm sure that they, considering their arrogance and violence, don't accept the idea either’ Ali Waked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's statement that Jewish settlers would be allowed to remain in Palestinian territory after the pullout from the West Bank, is irrelevant, Sheikh Nayef Rajoub, waqf and religious affairs minister in the Palestinian Authority told Ynet Friday. "The settlers' behavior meted out a death sentence to any possibility of...

"Palestinians" death cult - Humanity turned Upside down 9/11 & other terror victims in agony are to be cheered, danced & laughed at but monsters on humanity (on non Arabs & on their own people like) Al-Zarqawi & Saddam Hussein are to be sympathized with. They tell us day & night that they are about "freedom", yet, in their entire violent totalitarian society, not one person is ever really free. If they deliberately send their kids to be killed as murderers (bombers or shields for adult shooters), How do they expect us to take them seriously when they make a...

The Demonization of the Fringe by Aliza Karp Mar 16, '06 / 16 Adar 5766 In his book Perfidy, while retelling the story of the trial of Dr. Rudolf Kastner in 1955, Ben Hecht records the testimony of Joel Brand, who was credited with saving literally millions of Hungarian Jews from the ovens of the Holocaust. Amongst the tragedies that this testimony reveals is the devastating effect that can result from the marginalization of upright individuals who do not submit to foul policies of the establishment. The calamity at Amona could only have been carried out after the general public...

Last update - 08:44 16/03/2006 Settlers, you have failed By Aluf Benn Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared his intention of eliminating all settlements beyond the separation fence in the West Bank within the next four years, as well as evacuating some 70,000 settlers from their homes, resettling them, and closing ourselves within a unilateral border. The idea is not new: former prime minister Ehud Barak spoke of it in 2001, and Ariel Sharon began to carry it out with the disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria. But this is the first time that an incumbent prime minister is...

Mar. 5, 2006 20:31 | Updated Mar. 6, 2006 8:52 Religious Zionist rabbi supports Kadima By MATTHEW WAGNER AND JPOST STAFF Braving the criticism of the religious Zionist public, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun announced Sunday his support for Kadima. Bin-Nun, head of the religious kibbutz movement's Yeshiva at Ein Tzurim, said putting his support behind Kadima was "the most difficult decision I have ever made." Olmert and Bin-Nun also reached an understanding, according to Ha'aretz, in which Olmert pledged that the security fence would not delineate Israel's borders. In the document, the acting prime minister promised to retain Jerusalem's integrity under...

Education Ministry officials will convene to discuss recent complaints of police behavior in Jewish Shomron schools - such as 20 Yassamniks causing panic in an elementary school this past Sunday. Some 20 special-unit Yassam policemen and another 10 regular policemen descended upon an elementary school in Itamar, in the Shomron, on Sunday. They threatened children by loudspeaker, caused children to cry, entered a classroom and took pictures, and kept students closed up in their classrooms for a half-hour - because of a rock allegedly thrown at a police jeep earlier in the day. The principal of the school, Rabbi Nitzan...

Sources at Acting Prime Mnister's office tell Ynet Olmert remains obligated to the tearing down of all illegal outposts, . Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni refrains from supporting settlers' compromise plan on outposts Sources at Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Friday the Israeli government has no intentions of making any concessions to the settler leadership at this point in time regarding the illegal outposts. "Israel is committed to the razing of the outposts in accordance with the Road Map peace plan. There is no other decision at this stage," a source at the acting PM's office told Ynet Friday....

Qassam strike: Three people, including baby, hurt after Qassam hits their mobile home in kibbutz Karmiya south of Ashkelon. Infant seriously injured after sustaining head wounds; home belongs to Gaza evacuees Baby hurt in rocket strike: Three people were injured Friday after a Qassm rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit their house. A seven-months-old baby sustained head wounds, while his father and another person suffered light to moderate wounds. The infant was evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva in serious condition, while the other two were taken by ambulance to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. The Qassam...

The IDF removed soldiers securing the settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank on Thursday afternoon. The army's move followed an incident on Wednesday in which 11 residents of the settlement attacked a soldier on guard duty. During the attack, the soldier was beaten to the ground and his communication device was taken from him. The military force guarding Yitzhar was the last line of communication between the army and the West Bank settlement. As a result of the IDF decision, the settlement was entirely cut off from the military.

Hebron police arrested two Israeli youths suspected of throwing stones at Palestinian homes Two teenagers were arrested over the weekend after settlers visiting Hebron for a special prayer session reportedly stoned Palestinian homes and residents. Settlers attacked local residents, students and journalists on several occasions, Palestinian sources charged, but security sources claimed relative quiet prevailed throughout the weekend. Noam Arnon, Spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, has rejected the accusations of Hebron Palestinians, who claimed that members of the Jewish community had acted violently against them. "I don't know of any of the incidents they reported. The Arabs have...

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settlers cut down and uprooted hundreds of olive trees on Palestinian farms near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, residents and Israeli police said. Settlers from the most radical enclaves in the occupied West Bank have often attacked farms since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000, in which settlers have often been targeted by militants. Settlers say that the land, which Palestinians want for a state, is theirs by biblical birthright. Residents of Salem said dozens of settlers from Elon Moreh chopped down hundreds of the town's olive trees, the...

Nov. 14, 2005 18:38 | Updated Nov. 14, 2005 18:45 Peretz fronts bill to pay off settlers By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL In a move that stirred controversy among MKs of all parties, newly elected Labor Party chairman Amir Peretz submitted a Knesset bill Monday that would grant compensation to West Bank settlements where 60% of the residents left voluntarily. In a statement accompanying the bill Peretz wrote that he intended to create "incentives for the continuation of voluntary evacuation of the Israeli citizens located in Judea and Samaria.” "[The disengagement] was a concrete example of the nation's ability to establish...

Despite the political talk of unity, it is clear that there are significant, unbridgeable gulfs between the pioneering settlers and, let's say the Tel Avivians, for example. Generally speaking, non-observant Jews of the Left refer to the settlers pejoratively as "fanatics" or "zealots". The settlers, on the other hand, often view the Left as empty of higher ideals and dedicated to self-serving pleasure, with little commitment to very much that is spiritual or with Jewish content. This may be because of the secular tilt to education, as the curriculum has been set by the Left since the founding of the...

Ariel Sharon had evidently reached the conclusion that a military victory was needed, and since he was incapable of directing or unable to order a military victory over the Palestinians, he ordered a military victory over the Jewish "settlers". Israelis opposed to Ariel Sharon's unilateral "disengagement plan" had something in common with those who backed the plan. Neither group had any idea at all of why Sharon was implementing it. Those who opposed the plan, the "Orange Banner" camp, unsurprisingly had trouble understanding what benefits Sharon could possibly think would come from the "disengagement". But the supporters of the plan...

The True History of Palestine: The Nation-State Fallacy By William John Hagan The Houston Home Journal (Warner Robins, GA) Print Edition 08/24/2005 The current debate on the inevitable future of the “Palestinian Nation” seems to lack one simple fact: Palestine has no past and was never a sovereign nation. The closest thing the Palestinian people have to a history is that there was once a British Colony from which they had stolen their modern name. After the Allied victory in World War Two, it became clear to even the most anti-Semitic Westerners that the Jewish People deserved to have their...

Following the evacuation of the Gush Katif settlement in the Gaza strip earlier this week, the Israel Defense Force (IDF), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and various think tanks are preparing for 'the day after'. JID's Middle East correspondent reports from Jerusalem. It is clear that the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip will not reduce international pressure for further evacuation of other Israeli settlements, particularly in the West Bank. The key question is when this will take place and how the Israeli administration will respond. The assumption at the IDF Plans and Policy Directorate, headed by Major-General Yitzhak Harel, is...

The row over Israel's biggest evacuation of settlers in over two decades presages a growing clash over what makes the Jewish state Jewish IT IS the last Sabbath eve in July, a night of stillness and velvet warmth after the heat of the day. The villa-lined, traffic-free streets of Neve Dekalim are dotted with people strolling home from family dinners or chatting softly to neighbours. Then a loudspeaker breaks the calm. “Residents, good evening and good Sabbath. Please go into protected buildings immediately.” The people respond to the warning as they did to the dull crack of the mortar shell...

...By its very nature, the impending withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlements from Gaza changes the status quo, creating opportunities to lessen political friction by helping the devastated Palestinian economy move toward sustained viability. An economic road map defined by common Palestinian-Israeli interests could, as a practical matter, make a bigger difference than another roll of the political dice.... Although the past four years have been dismal for the Israeli economy, they have rendered the Palestinians destitute: • Average personal income for Palestinians declined by more than one-third; more than half were reduced to poverty, and unemployment levels are nearly...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A passenger on an Israeli bus opened fire on Thursday, killing three people, an Israeli police spokesman told Channel 2 TV, in an apparent argument among passengers. Five other people were wounded. The TV report said the gunman, in an Israeli army uniform, was captured by police. The gunfire erupted as the bus was on a road in Israel's north near the town of Shfaram. The spokesman told Channel 2 that the gunman was a soldier, three people were killed and several others wounded, and the gunman was captured. Channel 2 said the incident was not a...

Aug. 2, 2005 15:23 Outline for permanent housing in Nitzanim approved By JPOST.COM STAFF The National Council for Planning and Construction on Tuesday afternoon approved an outline delineating the permanent housing site in the Nitzanim sand dunes for Gaza evacuees. According to the plan, around 2,200 housing units would be erected in the area, Army Radio reported. Every family would receive half dunam plots on which they could build their homes. In addition, another 450 housing units would be built in the existing community of Nitzan. The outline also stipulates expanding the Nitzanim dunes nature reserve to two-and-a-half times its...

Aug. 2, 2005 14:26 Settlers accept deal on Sderot protest By MATTHEW GUTMAN AND YAAKOV KATZ Police and settler leaders finally reached a last-minute deal close to midnight Monday night after days of heated negotiations on the fate of an anti-disengagement rally in the southern Negev town of Sderot Tuesday. Heads of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip agreed to hold a "short" rally in Sderot between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. and then move on to Ofakim for the night. Negotiations will resume on Wednesday to discuss the continuation of the rally, as the...

As the government steps up its harassments and demonization of any Jew who is loyal to the Torah and Eretz Yisrael, many ask: where did we go wrong? Where did we fail in our efforts to bring the Jewish people closer to its national destiny? Why have we not succeeded in preserving our hold onto the land? Many good Jews grapple with this question, searching their souls as to the reasons for the failure. And I tell you that we have not failed in the slightest! True, we have not attained our goals, but this is not due to any...

Settler split in Gaza Exclusive: Gush Katif settlement of Ganei Tal on the verge of splitting after 46 families express their willingness to leave voluntarily; 30 families oppose move, threaten to set up alternative institutions By Ilan Marciano and Elad Tena GANEI TAL - An unprecedented controversy in the Gaza Strip settlement of Ganei Tal is threatening to split the community apart. Ganei tal on the verge of a split Photo: Gadi Kavlo Some 30 families are demanding that all other residents be kicked out of settlement after they expressed their willingness to voluntarily move to two other communities as...

Walking among the tens of thousands of Israeli protesters at Moshav Kfar Maimon this week was like being witness to a miracle. There in the scorching summer heat were thousands upon thousands of families with children of all ages, young men and women and elderly people, living under siege and in conditions that would make an infantryman cringe. And yet, there was no complaining. There was no shouting. There was no pushing. There was no garbage on the ground. There was no stench of any kind. What one saw in the protesters' faces and heard in each and every statement...

ELEI SINAI, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avi Farhan, determined not to give up his home overlooking the sea when Israel quits the occupied Gaza Strip, is looking into becoming a Palestinian. "I have met with Palestinians. I am willing to be a test case for peace and take up Palestinian citizenship," Farhan told Reuters. "It will hurt me to give up my Israeli citizenship, but I want to remain here." One Palestinian official suggested he might be allowed to stay in overcrowded Gaza -- home to 1.4 million Palestinians -- as long as he obeyed Palestinian laws. Actual...

New Lapita find re-dates known Fiji settlers VITAL CLUE: The pottery shard, at least 200 years older than any other piece found in Fiji, is thought to be the work of the Lapita people that originated near Taiwan AFP , AUCKLAND Sunday, Oct 24, 2004 A biological anthropologist excavates a skeleton after archeologists discovered a 3,000-year-old cemetery in Vanuatu in August, holding secrets about the first humans to colonize the South Pacific. A shard of pottery showing a human face, pre-dating any other Lapita pottery in Fiji, has now been found and hailed a s a significant discovery. PHOTO: AFP...

Don't blame Chabad DAVID ELIEZRIE, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 11, 2005 There is no question that the Chabad movement is strongly opposed to the disengagement policy. Strangely, it was Omri Sharon who explained it best. When his father, the prime minister, came to visit close family friends in Kfar Chabad sometime ago a few of the local residents engaged in a spontaneous, peaceful demonstration outside the house. Omri explained to a reporter that "their demonstration against my father's policy is motivated by their love for their fellow Jews." Concern for Jewish life and security stands at the center of Chabad's...